Another Idea for the Pacers in 2010.

First of all, at least we have the kind of fans that instead of continually bashing the team EVERY day like a lot of fans.  At least we can talk about and look forward to next year.

Thanks to Aaronb my brain started churning about ideas for the Pacers next year.

Lots of ideas and salary cap info after the jump.

Pacers try to trade Murphy ($11,047,619) and Solo Jones ($1,620,000) to Cleveland for Ilgauskas ($11,541,074) and JJ Hickson ($1,429,200).  If they won't do it, then Just Murphy for Ilgauskas.  I honestly think that some kind of deal for Jamario Moon would be a great thing for the Pacers, but for some reason not many people share my enthusiasm.

Another idea, assuming the Nets get the #1 pick and want John Wall...  Trade them TJ Ford ($8,775,000),who has a player option for next year, so I don't really know how that would work if he got traded, but the worst case scenario for them is that his contract expires in 2011).  Ford would at worst have just that 1 year left, whereas Harris would have 3 years left at an average of almost 9mil per year.  It will probably take more than just TJ ford, but I'm not sure how much more.

Take offers on Dunleavy, but keep him unless the deal is pretty nice.  He's going to be making $10,561,984 next year, but it's the last year of his contract.  So either we trade him this year for a worthwhile deal or we keep him a little into next year and use him as trade bait before the deadline, his juicy 10.5 mil expiring contract should draw interest.  Worse comes to worse he plays for us next year and if stays healthy brings us some points from off the bench and brings US cap relief in 2011.

I would REALLY love it if the Pacers could somehow work out a deal to trade Jeff Foster to the nuggets for Lawson, but it doesn't seem like this trade is much of a possibility.  Just think of how nice it would be to have the Devin Harris trade happen, and have Lawson, Dunleavy, and Hansbrough coming off the bench....

Resign 1 of the 2 Watson ($2,800,000) OR Travis Diener ($1,740,000).  Don't resign Luther Head ($884,881), unless he just goes crazy the rest of the year.  Resign AJ Price for his $765,162 non-guaranteed contract.  I'm waffling over weather or not to resign McRoberts, who has a NON-guaranteed contract for $885,120 scheduled for 2010, I'm leaning more towards letting him go.  Assuming all this is done, which I'm sure isn't how it will really go, the Pacers would free up 3.5-4.5 million dollars.  If ONLY the Murphy trade would happen we would still have a LOT of cap relief.  Our total salary cap would sit at $53,180,301, which leaves us with almost $12,000,000 to spend before hitting the lowered luxury tax of next year if all of my calculations are correct.  From what I've read the luxury tax should be set at about $65,000,000 for next year.  To me the 2010 Free Agent Class looks a lot more appetizing than the 2011 class.

2010 Free Agents:

Joe Johnson
Ray Allen
Manu Ginobili
Marcus Camby
Tracey McGrady
Shaquille O'Neal
Brad Miller
Stephen Jackson
Jermaine O'Neal
Mike Miller
Rip Hamilton

but more importantly here are the players that can opt out of there current contracts next year:

Yao Ming (owed 17.7 million in 10/11)
Amare Stoudamire (owed 17.7 million in 10/11)
LeBron James (owed 17.2 million in 10/11)
Dwayne Wade (owed 17.0 million in 10/11)
Chris Bosh (owed 17.1 million in 10/11)
Dirk Nowitzki (owed $21.5 million in 10/11)
Josh Howard (owed $11.8 million in 10/11)
Mike Redd (owed $18.3 million in 10/11)
Tyson Chandler (owed $12.8 million in 10/11)

Obviously we would have to find a way to clear a little more cap space to get any of the BIG names it would seem like, but at least here the list is for everyone to mow over.

As for the draft,

I would really like to get Evan Turner.  I just think his leadership and pure talent would be a perfect fit for the team. 

Another guy I was starting to give more thought to is the Downey guy from South Carolina.  I'm not sure how his game is really going to translate to the NBA though.  He is EXTREMELY fast, a good leader, no one can trap him, he's at least a decent passer, great scorer, 2nd in the NCAA in steals, and he loves to have the ball in the big moments.  All of these qualities would be great to have on the team, but once again, will he be all of this in the NBA?  His downfall would have to be his height.

I think Cousins will be a great NBA player, but I think it will be hard for us to pick him after picking Hansbrough this year.  Cousins could turn out to be extremely streaky in the NBA though.

Ideal lineup for 2010:

PG - Devin Harris

SG - Evan Turner

SF - Danny Granger

PF - JJ Hickson

C - Roy Hibbert

Bench:

Ty Lawson

Mike Dunleavy

Tyler Hansbrough

AJ Price or Earl Watson

Brandon Rush

Dahntay Jones

Jeff Foster

This Roster is not even including whoever we would sign with the $12,000,000 of cap space we would have.  So imagine the type of team that we could have.  Maybe you guys have some more ideas on how to clear up a little more cap space to sign someone like Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire to start at PF instead of Hickson, but I can't really see any other spots to find money.

Is all of this stuff just too far out of reach?  Does it just make sense in my own crazy brain?  Let me hear some feedback.

It took me quite some time to look up the information in here, so even if my ideas don't make sense, maybe it will help some of you guys get some ideas.